Entrepreneur Profile: Ed Hegedus of Rave Juice

Electronic Dance Music is sweeping across the United States at a remarkable rate. The commercialized, repackaged form of what was once an underground genre is now inescapable. Icons like Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia, and Avicii have replaced the rock stars of days past with their astronomical growth as artists over the past few years.

We are experiencing a shift in our mainstream music consciousness that seems to have penetrated myriad genres, drawing them under the evolving title of Electronic Dance Music. With previously unforeseeable collaborations like Usher and David Guetta and Rihanna and Calvin Harris it is clear that the times have changed.

And with the changing times comes a need for changing products to meet the consumer’s demands and interest. Ed Hegedus and Rave Juice have done just that with their truly remarkable recovery supplement.

Rave Juice is a “comprehensive recovery solution designed specifically to help you recover from club life.” And indeed the product does just that. Their progressive recovery supplement was formulated with the help of holistic doctors, chemists, and contains 5-HTP along essential vitamins, antioxidants, and electrolytes. With 7x more vitamin C than orange juice, more antioxidants than 30lbs of spinach, and 6x the potassium of leading sports drinks it’s quite hard to argue with the product’s prowess. Not to mention that this is all jam-packed in a surprisingly minuscule 2oz package.

With a game-changing product that surprisingly performs as advertised, Ed Hegedus and Rave Juice seem well suited to take the Electronic Dance Music scene by storm. We caught up with Ed following Electric Zoo to learn more about Rave Juice, what influenced the products, his personal ambitions and his plans for the future.

Read on for our interview with the man behind the game-changing recovery formula.

Give us a background of the founders of Rave Juice. Besides Rave Juice, what are your goals as individuals?

Our team is made up of 4 friends with backgrounds in engineering, finance, marketing, and sales. Our collective goal is to establish Rave Juice as the premier recovery drink in the EDM community, but individually it's a test to see how well we perform at each of our roles. We're constantly learning and improving and hopefully we can use our experiences in other endeavors.

It seems that you have a history in electronic dance music. What got you into the genre?

Growing up outside of Detroit, the home of techno, I was always able to listen to late night radio shows with great electronic music. It stuck with me throughout college, but I really became a convert when I spent some time in Argentina. The club culture there is massive and it's all about the music. That's where EDM, for me, evolved from being just music to being an experience.

How did you go about founding Rave Juice?

The idea for Rave Juice was thought up in Miami at Ultra Music Festival in 2011. I realized that my friends and I were spending too much money on recovery products, coconut waters, energy drinks, aspirin, 5-HTP, multivitamins, and that it wasn't a convenient way to recover. After that trip, we spent 9 months developing a formula that would give you all the benefits of those other products in one 2 oz. shot. We launched in December 2011 and have been growing since then.

What made you pursue entrepreneurship?

Anyone can work for a company...so what made you branch out for yourself? The most appealing aspect of entrepreneurship is the sense of purpose. You are involved in building a brand from scratch and you have a very real impact on the success of that brand. It's risky, exciting, stressful, and fun all at the same time. You learn a lot about business and also a lot about yourself.

What is it that sets Rave Juice apart from other 5-HTP supplements?

Most 5-HTP supplements are just that, 5-HTP and nothing else. You have to take them with a handful of other supplements and wash them down with sugary 'recovery' drinks. The convenience of taking Rave Juice is a real benefit and it is less expensive than buying a combination of 5 other products. What really differentiates Rave Juice from most other products on the market is that it really works.

When you originally got the idea for Rave Juice what were you aiming to create as a product?

There are many forms of 5-HTP supplementation, but your product comes in a much more convenient package. The real goal was to create a product that satisfied all recovery needs and market it to people in the EDM community. We could have created a simple hangover shot marketed to the general public, but we wanted to focus our efforts helping others in a community where we are actively involved.

Through Rave Juice you've experienced firsthand the struggles start-up companies face and the time-consuming nature of entrepreneurship. What advice would you have for an up-and-comer in your industry?

Since we are introducing a relatively unknown product to the market, marketing can be a real challenge. Be prepared to test multiple strategies and adapt with the feedback you receive. One thing that's very important is to have conviction through the struggles. If you've thought out a good business plan, it will pay off in the end.

What are your immediate goals as a company? I know you've been making a push to have a presence at major festivals...

Our immediate goal is to educate people on the benefits of a recovery shot. We've been sponsoring events, passing out samples, and having giveaways in our Facebook page. It takes time for people to transition from their usual cocktail of recovery products to Rave Juice, but word is spreading quickly.

How about long-term? EDM as a genre is experiencing explosive growth, so it seems this may just be the beginning of Rave Juice's growth...

The EDM scene has been established outside of the US for decades, so international expansion is a major goal for Rave Juice.

What other projects are you working on? What else can we expect from you in the future, outside of rave Juice?

It's just Rave Juice for now! We work with a lot of successful startups, bright people, and talented artists so there will most definitely be future ventures.